


i'm home

by lostamongstars



Category: Legend Series - Marie Lu
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Gen, I'm so sorry guys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-03
Updated: 2016-02-03
Packaged: 2018-05-18 00:27:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5890978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lostamongstars/pseuds/lostamongstars
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>sometimes it is death that becomes one's salvation.</p>
            </blockquote>





	i'm home

 

**\+ cross-posted on tumblr (whitehairedqueens) and also on my[Wattpad](https://www.wattpad.com/user/AsiaMoonfield). :)**

* * *

 

There's little time and at the rate of their run across the hall, they're wasting it. Whatever trick that this Republic prodigy used, it won't last more than a minute now. John can feel that much.

That's why he gave Day to June, shifting the weight he's carrying to her. She's shocked at the sudden turn of power. His own hands went after the blindfold hanging listless around Day's neck. John turns the way they came, hears her strangled, helpless-sounding plea to stay with them.

John wanted to stay. He wanted to go out of that exit with them so bad. He himself knows how much trouble Daniel's gone through—he'd kept his secret for five, heartsick years after all. After learning that secret of his, John had always yearned to protect him with all his might—but that separation between them was the only way they could protect each other before. But now...

Now looked like the start of a new era between the siblings—both of them hatching a plot to save Eden from wherever he might be. Whether it be the depths of the sea or at the last earthen frontier, they'll go. They'll die trying. That had always been their way, their words.

The Girl, however, isn't an idiot to not know what he was about to do, and what she should do next. Her footsteps had mixed with those of the soldiers running in the adjacent halls. Fading. Rising. Fading. Rising. Had she already left Batalla? Joy if she's already out to safety. The Patriots were their way out—funny, they always seemed like the enemy of the country and yet this country was their personal antagonist. Daniel's antagonists, in fact.

What kind of country kills their own men? Definitely the Republic. Daniel is the living proof.

 _She will tell Daniel_ , the eldest of the Wing siblings reassures himself as the blows came and went. _She will make him understand._

 _She will take care of him_. The thought makes him smile.

He wraps the blindfold around his eyes. Limping blind through the hall—forward is the only way, and he didn't have to make other turns. Footsteps closing in.

_Close. So close._

His heart creates a frantic rhythm in his ribs. His insides feel like melting to mush. His legs wanted to turn back to the exit. _Go back, go back, go back, go back, go back while you still can—_

The reality of the plight they're going through hits John Arslan Wing again, a cold stab to his heart: the three of them will all die today. No one will save Eden if they're all dead. So he must do something. Anything.

He must do this.

He'll do what he have to do, and he has to do this. For Daniel. For Eden. For their parents.

This was what they would've done.

John's will hardens into something he doesn't know. This strange feeling calms the storm of thoughts within.

John meets his first soldier by hearing his voice.

"Freeze! Hands up!"

He obliges. Footsteps closing in. Stale air course through his lungs, the faintest hints of sweat stuck in his sinus. One of them brings his arms to his back, albeit with too much force his muscles ache.

Someone kneed John to the floor, his jaw hits home. He cries out in pain. Another pulls his hair and cuffs his hands tight behind him.

A woman's stern voice echoes in the hall. _Bring him to the yard_ , she said. _Drag him_ , she said.

The soldiers follow every word she says. He obliges, wincing at every moment they hurt him, struggling.

 _Don't let them get to you_ , he said to Daniel. In his mind, it was Daniel who spoke those words to him.

John hears the turning of a door. Fresh air sweeps into the hall, clearing his mind. This is it. His end.

He struggles again. The soldiers continue to drag him to the center of the yard. Once they stopped, John knows with a cold certainty that he's already on the spot where his brother would've been.

 _He will save Eden_ , John reassures himself once more.

Guns are loaded. A soldier barks an order to get ready.

In John's mind's eye, he sees their parents behind a silk curtain. There's no mistaking them: Mom and Dad, their smiles at him reaching their bright, kind eyes.

 _It's been a long day, isn't it, John?_ he hears his mom ask, her voice soft like the summer breeze.

Sparks ring across the yard. John feels the bullets lodging inside him. Falling like a star from the sky, he didn't cry out. He couldn't feel anything.

But he's still seeing them. It doesn't matter, he mouths, but no sound comes out. John reaches out for them, passing the silk curtain with a smile of his own.

_I'm home._

 

 


End file.
